Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2014

EF0 tornado, South Morrill, Nebraska, May 20, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Scotts Bluff County on May 20, 2014, touching down at 5:25 PM MDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 20, 2014
Touchdown
5:25 PM MDT (23:25 UTC)
Lifted
5:30 PM MDT (23:30 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Scotts Bluff County
Touchdown point
41.926, -103.924
Lift-off point
41.927, -103.911
Record number
1405201725-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms in Sioux and Scotts Bluff counties in the western Nebraska Panhandle produced funnel clouds, large hail and a weak tornado.

A weak tornado touched down in open country one half mile east of County Road 79D and was on the ground for five minutes before lifting just west of County Road 9. No damage was reported.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:23 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:31 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:31 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchCYS
23:00 UTC03:47 UTCFlash Flood WarningCYS
23:23 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningCYS
00:01 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Denver, CO (KDEN), 12:00Z

11.4 hours before the tornado, 236 km from the path. May 20, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2014-05-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -63, lifted condensation level 1142 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2014-05-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-63 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1142 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
59 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

0.6 hours after it, 236 km from the path. May 21, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2014-05-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -83576, lifted condensation level 1874 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2014-05-21The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 8 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-83576 J/kg
Surface CAPE
258 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1874 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
245 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Torrington Municipal Airport (TOR), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:48 UTC66.246.480° 13 kt1013.5VCTS
21:53 UTC674570° 17 kt1013.5VCTS
22:14 UTC664650° 17 kt1012.5TS
22:34 UTC5948310° 18 kt1014.6-TSRA
22:39 UTC4946290° 19 kt241015.2+TSRA FG
22:46 UTC4745 3 kt241016.3+TSRA FG
22:53 UTC454550° 8 kt1015.6+TSRA FG
23:02 UTC454330° 11 kt1014.9TSRA BR
23:11 UTC464420° 6 kt1015.2TSRA BR
23:32 UTC504640° 16 kt1014.6VCTS -RA
23:53 UTC534980° 15 kt1014.2-RA
00:11 UTC514770° 16 kt1013.9VCTS -RA
00:26 UTC555070° 20 kt1013.9
00:53 UTC555060° 17 kt1013.9

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:27 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:20 UTCHAIL 0.523 Ssw AgateSioux, NEVERY HEAVY RAIN.
23:23 UTCHAIL 16 N MorrillSioux, NE
23:25 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD7 N StegallScotts Bluff, NE
00:04 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD6 Ne ScottsbluffScotts Bluff, NE
00:26 UTCHAIL 0.59 N MinatareScotts Bluff, NEDIME TO MARBLE.
00:29 UTCHAIL 0.2512 Ne ScottsbluffScotts Bluff, NEHAIL COVERS THE GROUND. HEAVY RAIN.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.